Moore’s Garage, in Thaxted Road, Saffron Walden, has been closed for about a year and is listed as a brownfield development site, although it is not in Uttlesford District Council’s (UDC) emerging Local Plan.

Developer The Ford Wells Construction Group Ltd, based in Ashdon, has lodged an application to transform the filling station, on the corner of the turning to the Shire Hill Industrial Estate, into a mixed-use three-storey complex.

If approved when it goes before UDC’s planning committee, likely to be later this year, the modern design would include a roof terrace, underground parking and a communal garden to the rear of the property.

The shop and office space, the latter of which is being lined up for use by Ford Wells as a headquarters, would be on the ground floor, with the two-bedroom flats above them.

Ford Wells acknowledge the land will have to be decontaminated first and the existing buildings and ­ ­equipment on site demolished to make way for the development scheme.

Two residents have raised ­objections to the scheme, with one claiming the design looked “ghastly”. Another has written: “The proposed building is not compatible with the scale, form, layout, appearance and materials of surrounding buildings.”

Ford Wells describe the design of the building as “contemporary” under a flat roof. Parking for the office and retail unit will be at the front of the development between the two entrances.